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joewein.de LLC
fighting spam and scams on the Internet
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"419" Scam – Advance Fee / Fake Lottery Scam
The so-called "419" scam is a type of fraud dominated by criminals from Nigeria and other countries in Africa. Victims of the scam are promised a large amount of money, such as a lottery prize, inheritance, money sitting in some bank account, etc.
Victims never receive this non-existent fortune but are tricked into sending their money to the criminals, who remain anonymous. They hide their real identity and location by using fake names and fake postal addresses as well as communicating via anonymous free email accounts and mobile phones.
Keep in mind that scammers DO NOT use their real names when defrauding people.
The criminals either abuse names of real people or companies or invent names or addresses.
Any real people or companies mentioned below have NO CONNECTION to the scammers!
Read more about such scams here or in our 419 FAQ. Use the Scam-O-Matic to verify suspect emails.
Click here to report a problem with this page.
Some comments by the Scam-O-Matic about the following email:
- This email uses a separate reply address that is different from the sender address. Spammers use this to get replies even when the original spam sending accounts have been shut down. Also, sometimes the sender addresses are legitimate looking but fake and only the reply address is actually an email account controlled by the scammers.
- This email message is a 419 scam. Please see our 419 FAQ for more details on such scams.
Fraud email example:
From: Garry Altman <info@idxcorporation.com>
Reply-To: <gar1.alt11@gmail.com>
Date: Sat, 29 Jul 2017 09:53:18 -0400
Subject: DONATION
Hello,
My name is Garry Altman the personal assistant of Ms. Doris Buffett, She is a philanthropist and the founder of one of the largest private foundation in the world. She is on a mission to give it all away as she strongly believes in ‘giving while living.’ She always had the idea that never changed in her mind — that wealth should be used to help each other which has made her decide to donate to you. She has instructed I get in touch with you, kindly acknowledge this message and I will get back to you with more details.
Visit the web page to know more about her: http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/Books/giving-dorris-buffett-story-michael-zitz/story?id=10827641
Regards,
Garry Altman.
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Anti-fraud resources:
